Kit Lowe, a registered Democrat who supported Hillary Clinton and now backs McCain, says he thinks McCain is "doing a great job."

Rosa Perez, who manages a telemarketing company, says she was left speechless by McCain's performance. She says "Definitely McCain won the debate."

Political bloggers, too, have a few thoughts about the meaning of last night's debate for both candidates.

Madeliene Allbright, former Secretary of State for the Clinton administration called it "a breakthrough night for Obama."

"He responded knowledgeably, thoughtfully and confidently to the toughest questions on the economy, Iraq, and terror. Meanwhile, Senator McCain spent so much time attacking his opponent, he neglected to show how a McCain-Palin administration would differ from Bush-Cheney," she said.

Bob Barr called it "the debate that wasn't."

"There's not a dime's worth of difference between Senator McCain and Senator Obama. The viewers of this first presidential 'debate' missed the opportunity for a true debate," he said

"Accountability was not present in tonight's debate; just the repetitive refrain that the taxpayers have to pay for the mistakes of Wall Street, no matter what the cost might eventually add up to. On foreign policy, I was getting dizzy with all the places they want to inject our military forces. Both McCain and Obama need to be reminded that our military comes under the Department of Defense, not the Department of Offense.